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Olde Good Things

Architectural and Altered Antiques

Philadelphia Civic Center Frieze Finds a New Home in Bayonne New Jersey

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Back in 2005, the Philadelphia Civic Center was one of Olde Good Things’ largest salvage jobs of the year. We salvaged treasures from the inside and outside of the building. Famously, we removed three limestone mural friezes from the upper part of the building. Each frieze had a different theme: Commerce, Construction and Sports. The Sports Frieze found a home in New York, while the Commerce Frieze traveled all the way to Moscow, Russia.

Philadelphia Civic Center Construction Limestone Frieze

 

In 2017, the Construction Frieze was purchased by The Alessi Organization. It is now proudly displayed in a new plaza near East 22nd Street and Route 440 in Bayonne. They choose the Construction Freize because it represents the history of the local community.

 

Photo credit: NJ.com

View the full article by NJ.com 

 

Read more about this Salvage Job

Historic Limestone Friezes from Philadelphia Civic Center

Salvaged Antique Door Hardware from Philadelphia Civic Center

Customer Showcase: Antique Chandeliers and Religious Stained Glass

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Here you see photos of a London Pub, The Old Queens Head, designed with many decorative sustainable items from architectural antique sources all over the world.  Riz Shaikh, owner and seasoned head designer of the Colombo Group with an eye for detail, envisioned a speakeasy design with warm sepia tones.  He sourced decorative ceramic tiles, wooden paneling and wainscoting, fireplace mantels, elegant chandeliers, and church stained glass windows.

 

He chose Olde Good Things for multiple huge 4 ft wide chandeliers and decorative slag stained glass to create the warm ambiance seen in these photos.  These multi-arm slag glass and bronze chandeliers once graced the banquet room of the famous Toy Center at 200 Fifth Avenue, which now houses the famous Italian market Eataly.  The ceiling and partition walls, as well as the decorative amber-toned stained glass which decorates the back bar, were reclaimed from a Presbyterian Church, The Church on the Edge, in Northern New Jersey.  The dark tone wood paneling adds warmth to his design. As seasoned designers know, the original patina is the key to its authenticity.

Our architecturologists are constantly seeking great finds like these chandeliers to make amazing statements in our customers’ creations. Only a fraction of these astounding treasures can be seen online, so feel free to call or visit our New York City and Los Angeles stores. You can also peruse our six-story department store warehouse in Scranton Pennsylvania, often referred to as a ‘candy store’ or ‘treasure trove’ for those with an eye for building with original antique architectural pieces in wood, marble, glass, and bronze.

 

If you wish to be featured as the next Customer Showcase, click here.

Step by Step: Restoring Salvaged Antique Tile Mural

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Olde Good Things carries a variety of beautiful and unique antique tiles, but sometimes they can be challenging to work with. Salvaged tile often has imperfections, like chips, cracks, and scrapes. Most challenging of all are gorgeous antique murals that are missing tiles in key areas of the design.

Some might call these incomplete murals a complete loss, but our customer Debbie Lee of San Jose, California, sees them as opportunities. Debbie applies her artistic skills to reconstitute the missing tiles and frames the murals in magnificent cut glass mosaics. She recently sent us some photos to demonstrate her process, from start to finish.

For this project, Debbie started with a charming figural tile set made by Ceramica Catteneo that she purchased from the Olde Good Things web store. The mural featured two warriors and a lion, framed by a colorful decorative border. Two crucial tiles were missing: the center of the first warrior’s body, and the face of the lion.

Undeterred, Debbie purchased two plain black tiles from us in the same size that she could use as blanks. She sanded down and painted the blanks, carefully matching the sandy color to the background of the tile mural. She then sketched out the missing components of the mural, first drafting cartoons on paper and finally painting the designs onto the blank tiles. Debbie also designed and constructed an impressive frame for the mural using cut glass in shades of blue and green, complementing the warm oranges and yellows in the mural.

 

The finished product looks seamless and entirely original. Our hats are off to Debbie for her skillful reconstruction of the missing tiles! We’re so grateful to see this mural whole again.

Shop our tile murals

From the Floor to the Wall: Repurposing Old Floor Joists

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Olde Good Things is known throughout the salvaging, interior design, and preservation communities for our commitment to upcycling, repurposing, and restoring old, neglected, and forgotten items.

We have removed tin ceilings and repurposed them as mirrors and new, colorful ceiling and wall decorations. We’ve salvaged marble, slate, terracotta, and metal from crumbling, demolished, abandoned, or neglected buildings. We’ve given new homes to religious relics, art, statues, mantels, and vintage and antique furniture. We’ve bought and sold at auctions, flea markets, online, and through our 9 locations. A lot is happening with Olde Good Things, but nothing gives us more joy than taking something old and giving it new life.

Rows of reclaimed wood in the aisles of our Scranton PA warehouse

 

Repurposed Old Wood

Did you ever look at the rotting, pitted, splintered hardwood floor of an abandoned building and think to yourself, “these would make an amazing table”? No? Well, we did. We’ve taken old, salvaged floor joists and repurposed them into stunning tables using vintage salvaged wood and other industrial metals or wood pieces for table legs. We’ve taken something some would consider the garbage and made it into something people sit around to enjoy their meals, share important news about their day, play board games, or just sit and contentedly sip tea.

 

Scrap Wood Skins

When we make our tables, the carpentry process requires we plane and cut the wood to piece together the tabletops. What happens to the scrap wood that doesn’t go into the tables? Well, we have another story for you. Those scraps of wood that were cut from the beams that were once floor joists were repurposed into something you have to see to believe.

 

Coffeeshop Showcase

If you’re a Gregular at Gregory’s Coffee in NYC, you’re frequenting a coffee shop that is a buzz for coffee lovers.  Here the customers gaze up at the amazing accent wall…the one covered completely in salvaged, repurposed floor joist wood scraps. Gregory’s Coffee has twelve locations in Manhattan.  Be sure and visit all of them, quite a few have this fascinating wall cover.

 

 

To learn more about our floor joist tables or the wall at Gregory’s Coffee shop, contact us. To see our growing inventory of handmade reclaimed wood tables, click here.  If you are interested in purchasing some of these amazing reclaimed wood beam skins, inquire here.  To take a look at any of our other amazing salvaged, reclaimed, repurposed, or restored items, click here.

How to Reuse Antique Tin Ceiling Sheets

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Choose Your Finish

Wall applications have recently been the popular trend with such materials as antique tin, reclaimed wood, salvaged copper & custom wallpaper, with the most common uses being as an accent wall, kitchen backsplash, or around the base of a bar or island. In the design world, pressed metal ceiling tin is known for its texture and design.  If you add the quality of antique distressed paint to this already decorative medium, you’ll have an artist’s pallet. We have acquired a large quantity of antique fish tin throughout the years. You can purchase it by the square foot, with a 20 square foot minimum. You have your choice to have the tin just stripped then cleaned, cleaned & sealed, or cleaned, painted & sealed. View the finishes below, shown as a square foot piece.

Customer Showcase

In this designer showcase, we are showing you how renowned designer Erica Diskin from Assembly Design Studio used this medium as a tin wall application. The restaurant is Six String Grill & Stage located in Foxboro, MA, next to Gillette Stadium. As many of our readers are aware, it is sometimes difficult to envision a pile of rough scrap metal transformed into an actually useful and decorative element in their design project.  Some designers really do have a knack for making this transformation, and Erica is one of them.  Olde Good Things has been using antique ceiling tin for many years to make decorative wall panels and frames for mirrors.  Erica’s example is unusual in that she used recycled tin sheets put together to form a tin mural.  While taking a look at the photos, take note of the industrial flooring oak table tops. The reclaimed wood tops were custom-made in our table shop.

 

Purchasing Tips

  • You must know the exact square footage and the exact size of the wall, so we can determine how to cut it. Minimum of 20 square feet per order.
  • You must know what color if you choose to have it finished. Click Here for Color Chart
  • You must know if you want antique tin fish or replica fish tin. Keep in mind, the distressed areas are darker silver on the antique tin. The new replica tin is bright silver in the distressed area with a cleaner finish.
  • All orders will take 3-4 weeks to process. Plan accordingly.

An Art Nouveau Trademark Meissen Stove to Mantel Conversion

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After a rare Meissen Stove with was swept up from our Olde Good Things Scranton, Pa warehouse, the client was generous enough to share the transformative conversion from relic to custom mantel and fireplace surround step-by-step.

Meissen was the first porcelain manufacturer in Europe. The art nouveau ovens from the German fireclay manufactories are works of art in themselves, and this particular Meissen stove appeared in Architectural Digest. The top portion of the stove was a frieze depicting a farmer’s dance. Two female figures flank the ornate cast iron grill. Each detailed green tile bears the Meissen stamp and designer’s name on the back… a world-renowned trademark of quality and craftsmanship.

Before Photo

Planning and Design:

Like most projects, the client says, planning took a lot of time and adjustment. Each tile was photocopied at the original size. The clients did not want to enlarge the opening of the fireplace, and, instead, decided to make the opening smaller. After measuring the opening, dimensions were traced on a sheet of plywood. Then, the clients added in the dimensions of the gas inserts to the preliminary drawing.

The tiles were arranged on the plywood sheet to determine a satisfactory negotiation of space that would allow for an even number of tiles to be included, plus the ¼” of grout space between each one. The original tiles were shifted into a final design, while a second design board on poster backing was laid out with the photocopies. This allowed the clients to visualize how the design would interact with the room space vertically.

Building and Navigating Irregularities:

The design was attached from the base upward — tile was leveled and secured to the wall, a wood frame, and to neighbor tiles with epoxy. Wood framing was used to close the space between design and wall and for additional integrity. The insert was added around the opening after the first round of tiles to prevent damage to the tiles and to leave room for adjustment. After all, tiles were installed and colors adjusted, grout was applied. The clients tested various sealants to add gloss to the repainted areas.

Tiles were individually treated to adjust thickness, to create one tile from two for some portions of the mantel, and to repair any chips or missing pieces — plaster was used to make them fuller and fill in the gaps. Others were sawed to make smaller. Meanwhile, a steel frame was constructed to hold the rows of tiles. The clients used acrylic paint to mix and match the colors needed to cover epoxy and shallow chips.

 

The clients minimized the dimensions of the fireplace opening with fireproof materials and electrical and gas hookups that matched the chosen insert. They installed a smart outlet for easy control and efficiency in the mantel top.

The project was a process of constant adjustment to the irregularities and waiting for epoxy to dry at a rate of one layer per day, the client remarked. “The goal was authenticity as opposed to perfection.”

 

 

This Meissen tile customer showcase is a prime example of the incorporation of classic design and authentic craftsmanship from our reclaimed architectural finds at Olde Good Things. Visit our online selections of salvaged architectural goods and altered antiques at www.oldegoodthings.com, or drop by one of our locations.

Colonial Eatery Brings Repurposed Architectural Elements

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The Assembly Design Studio designers of Ledger, a local restaurant and bar on New England’s North Shore, envisioned a “rough restoration” of the historic Salem Savings Bank — a place where customers could relax in a contemporary dining space and absorb the colorful history of Salem.

Salem Savings was erected in 1818 and is the second oldest incorporated savings bank in America. Notable bank customers of bygone days include Salem-born Nathaniel Hawthorne, dark romantic author of The Scarlet Letter, and Alexander Graham Bell, who patented the first telephone.

History comes in many flavors at this modern eatery. Regional cuisine is on the menu, inspired by traditional Colonial New England cooking techniques and local fish, meat, and produce. Local fare, cocktails mixed behind a leathered white macaubus granite bar, and fresh seafood from the oyster bar are offered in an authentic vintage industrial atmosphere. The restaurant’s decor was formed from the existing raw materials of the historic building, accentuated with reclaimed materials and distinctive pieces of architectural salvage. In the entry, visitors will walk through a glass and metal vestibule which showcases the original plaster ceiling and a custom 82” chandelier. A bank teller window adds to the ambience as guests enter the dining area, where a repurposed communal white oak table provides seating for 22. A contemporary wall crafted from metal safety box doors lends an industrial edge to the dining area, while a bank vault houses the walk-in refrigerator.

Exposed iron beams and rough brick and wood architecture provided a raw palette for the designers of Ledger to work with. Custom charred wood planking was incorporated into the design, a material reminiscent of Salem’s powerful and dark history which includes the Witch Trials and Great Fire of 1914. Other authentic details include distressed leather barstools, tufted banquettes, tile from the 1930s, and historic bank ledgers used for artistic display.

Ledger’s sophisticated vintage holophane lighting hails from the 1920s era and was supplied by Olde Good Things. The soft ambience of the fixtures offers a stark contrast to the lofty reclaimed wood inset on the ceiling and exposed iron beams. Our industrial Holophane light fixtures are sourced from factories across the Northeast and are a reminder of the Golden Age of “scientific illumination”. OGT’s extensive selection of Holophane fixtures from the 20s and 30s is salvaged and restored in our shop.

Besides their widespread usage in industry, the luminaires are ideal for contemporary commercial usage to illuminate a space without glare or dark spots. They are very popular in auction houses and amongst reclamation connoisseurs for their economical and efficient dispersion of light, along with the historic magnetism of their design.

Most Popular Holophanes

Shop all Holophane online, here.

For questions about our Designer discount, view here.

From Factory to Pantry

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In 2014, Olde Good Things salvaged panes of industrial aqua pebbled chicken wire glass from the Hamilton Manufacturing Co. building in Two Rivers, Wisconsin.

Our inventive customers at White Magdelena House, a home furnishings store and interior design studio in Hingham, Massachusetts, recently sent us photos of how they incorporated this uniquely colored glass into one of their design projects.

The industrial windows now serve as a barn-style sliding door for a pantry, beautifully demonstrating how our Olde Good Glass can be used to create privacy and partition spaces. Our compliments to the designers and installers!

We are currently sold out of aqua glass, but we do have plenty of other chicken wire glass, as well as other types of vintage reclaimed glass, in stock. Our glass shop also offers additional treatments like mirroring and frosting. Contact us to talk about your next project!

Industrial Window Finds Its Way Home

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We love seeing how our customers put their Olde Good Things to use – especially when that use is creative and unexpected.

This 15-light steel window with pebbled glass was salvaged from a commercial building, and we imagined it finding new life in an industrial space. Customer Kris Rodammer, a creative director and brand design consultant in Boston, had a cozier image in mind – he installed it as an interior window between the kitchen and hallway in his Brookline home.

Interior windows brighten a space, and the pebbled glass in this particular window invites soft, textured light into the hallway while creating a feeling of openness in the kitchen. Six of the lights pivot on a center hinge, allowing control over the flow of sound and air by opening and closing the window. The clean lines are a perfect complement to the classic design of Rodammer’s home.

Feeling inspired? Shop our reclaimed industrial windows and bring home one of your own.

Show Off Your Style in Our Customer Showcase

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We love seeing what our customers do with their Olde Good Things. There isn’t much that makes us happier than seeing your photos of our items “in the wild” – an antique tin mirror hanging in an apartment or café, a chain leg table anchoring a newly renovated kitchen, salvaged stained glass windows bringing gorgeous color into a luxury bathroom.

We also love to share these photos with the world. In the past, we’ve highlighted some beautiful and creative uses of Olde Good Things in the Customer Showcase section of our blog. These articles are promoted across our social media and in our email newsletter, which goes out weekly to over 10,000 subscribers.

Now, we’re inviting you to participate! Whether you’re a homeowner, artist, designer, contractor, landscaper, or just someone who loves antiques, we want to hear from you.

If you’d like to be part of our Customer Showcase series, here’s what we’ll need from you:

  1. High-quality photos of your work – at least 3200 x 2400 px – with attribution information (how would you like us to credit your photos?)
  2. Context – tell us your story! What kind of project are/were you working on? How did you find Olde Good Things? Why did you choose this particular item (or items)?
  3. Permission – please confirm that we have your permission to use your photos and your story on our blog, and let us know any preferences you have for how we identify you (for example, if you only want us to use your first name, or you want us to include a link to your design firm, etc.).

Please email your photos and information to [email protected]. We’ll choose our favorites to feature on our blog in 2019-2020!

Here’s our 3 latest Customer Showcases!

Boston Showcase at the Broadway Restaurant

Texas Showcase at the a’Bouzy Restaurant

Colonial Eatery Brings Repurposed Architectural Elements

 

 

Olde Good Things